US: Trump warns of violent change if Republicans lose midterms
US President Donald Trump warned evangelical leaders that if Republicans lose control of Congress in the midterm elections, Democrats will institute change violently. At a meeting with those leaders at the White House on Monday, Trump said everything was at stake for his conservative agenda if his party loses in November, according to a videotape of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.
Democrats will end everything immediately: Trump
"Democrats will overturn everything that we've done and they'll do it quickly and violently," Trump said, according to the Times report published on Tuesday. "They will end everything immediately," he added. "When you look at Antifa, these are violent people," he added, referring to militant leftist anti-fascism groups. The Times said a White House spokesman, Hogan Gidley, declined to expand on what Trump meant.
Trump had also warned for the same in 2016 elections
It was not the first time Trump has warned of violence if things didn't go his way. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he said his supporters would probably react violently if he did not win the Republican nomination. "I think you'd have riots," Trump warned.
Trump changed the subject in the meeting after reporters left
The Times said reporters were allowed to listen in on brief comments by Trump during the Monday meeting with Ministers and pastors and heard him talk about abortion, religious freedom, and youth unemployment. But after the press was shown out of the room, Trump changed the subject and suggested how the evangelical leaders could help Republicans win in November, the Times reported.
Here's what Trump said in the meeting after reporters left
"I ask you to go out and make sure all of your people vote," Trump said to the evangelical leaders. "If they don't vote we're going to have a miserable two years and we're going to have, frankly, a very hard period of time because then it just gets to be one election, you're one election away from losing everything you've got," he added.
